
Book ^UB 



PRESENTED BY 



\ 



memorial Sermon 



IN MEMORY OF 



Mr. GEORGE M. SWENEY 



BY 



Rev. W. E. PARSON, D. D. 

PASTOR 

CHURCH OF THE REFORMATION 



Washington, D. C, November 24, 1901 



WASHINGTON, D. O. 

GIBSON BROS., PBINTER8 AND BOOKBINDERS. 

1902. 









Gift. 



I hear a sweet voice ringing clear, 

All is well! 
It is my Father's voice I hear, 

All is well! 
Where'er I walk that voice is heard, 
It is my God, my Father's word, 
Fear not, but trust : I am the Lord : 

All is well! 

— E. Paxton Hood. 



Heaven lies about us in our infancy! 
Shades of the prison-house begin to close 
Upon the growing Boy. 

— Wordsworth. 



"At the still boyish age of eighteen he displayed 
one of the great qualities which characterized all 
his later life. He proved his love of country by 
enlistment as a private in the first year of the great 
war, and stood firmly by the colors." 

— Hon. John A. Kasson. 

"Impressions of President McKinley," in The Century Maga- 
zine, December, 1901. 



ftlxc gragcr. 



Our Father, which art in Heaven ! We come to 
Thee as children who need the things which are 
stored up in the treasure-house of Thy grace. 

Thou art the fountain of life. To Thee the weak 
must come for strength, the sick for healing, the 
sinful for pardon, the blind for sight, the tempted 
for succor, the sorrowing for comfort, the dying 
for life. 

We are weak, sinful, erring, tempted, dying 
mortals, and we come that our lack may be met 
in Thine infinite fulness. 

We bless Thee, O Lord, that Thou hast made us 
in Thine own image, and hast endowed us with 
immortality, so that every instinct and desire of 
our souls impels us to reach out after Thee. 

We never find rest till we find it in Thee. 

We come to Thee, to-night, our Father, with 
thankful hearts that in the midst of the sorrows 
and burdens of life we can turn aside to the calm 
and sure retreat, which is found beneath the mercy- 
seat. Thou hast forgiveness. We hear the words 
of the Saviour — Come unto me, all ye that labor 
and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. We 
respond to His gracious invitation. 



8 



We rejoice that He declares — I am the resurrec- 
tion and the life. Because I live ye, shall live also. 
In my Father's house are many mansions. 

Comfort us to-night, O God, with these precious 
words. As we are met in memory of a friend and 
comrade who fought his battles and has now finished 
his course, we ask Thy blessing on those whom 
Thou hast afflicted by this sore beveavement. 

Give to her, who is left to mourn, the precious 
ointment of Thine own consoling peace. May the 
good hope of everlasting life uphold in strength 
all who are cast down, that bearing our own bur- 
dens we may also be able to bear one another's 
burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ. We pray 
for these Thy servants who in the day of battle were 
kept from the dangers of field and camp. Give 
them gratitude for Thy mercies in the past, and 
make each one a good soldier of Jesus Christ. 
Give us all to-night a lesson of good from the faith- 
ful life recently closed, in whose memory we meet. 
Lead our minds to the largest measure of consecra- 
tion, through the remembrance of the life and 
sacrifice of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, who 
loved us and gave Himself for us. 

Hear us, O God, as we ask for these things for 
ourselves, and for all our fellowmen, in the name 
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath taught us to 
pray — 



Our Father, who art in heaven; Hallowed be 
Thy Name; Thy Kingdom come; Thy will be done 
on earth, as it is in heaven; Give us this day our 
daily bread; And forgive us to our trespasses, as 
we forgive those who trespass against us; And 
lead us not into temptation; But deliver us from 
evil ; For Thine is the Kingdom, and the power, and 
the glory, forever. Amen. 



glxc Usmns. 



During the opening service the choir sang the 
following hymn (23d Psalm) to an arrangement 
by Schnecker: 

"The King of Love my Shepherd is, 
Whose goodness faileth never; 
I nothing lack if 1 am His, 
And He is mine forever. 

Where streams of living water flow 

My ransomed soul He leadeth, 
And where the verdant pastures grow, 

With food celestial feedeth. 

Perverse and foolish, oft I strayed, 

But yet in love He sought me. 
And on His shoulder gently laid, 

And home rejoicing brought me. 

In death's dark vale I'll fear no ill 
With thee, dear Lord, beside me, 

Thy rod and staff my comfort still, 
Thy cross before to guide me. 

Thou spread'st a table in my sight, 

Thy unctious grace bestoweth, 
And, oh, the transport of delight 

Which in my heart o'erfloweth. 

And so through all the length of days 

Thy goodness faileth never, 
Good Shepherd! may I sing Thy praise 

Within Thy house forever." 



Immediately following the sermon the choir 
chanted the Lord's Prayer, after which Mrs. Par- 
son sang the familiar words of Phoebe Carey to an 
arrangement of Ambrose, as follows: 

"One sweetly solemn thought 
Comes to me o'er and o'er: 
I am nearer my home to-day 
Than ever I've been before! 

Nearer my Father's house, 

Where the many mansions be, 
Nearer the great white throne, 

Nearer the crystal sea. 

i 

Nearer the bound of life 

Where we lay our burdens down, 

Nearer leaving the cross of grief, 
Nearer gaining the crown. 

But lying dark between, 

And winding through the night, 

Flows on the deep and unknown stream, 
That leads me to the light. 

Jesus, perfect my trust, 

Strengthen my hand of faith, 
And be Thou near me when I stand 

Upon the shore of death." 



gtic ^cripUtve Wesson, 



He took a child, and set him in the midst of 
them; and when he had taken him in his arms, he 
said unto them: . 

Whosoever shall receive one of such children in 
my name, receiveth me; and whosoever shall re- 
ceive me, receiveth not me, but him that sent me. 
And John answered him, saying, Master, we saw 
one casting out devils in thy name, and he followeth 
not us: and we forbade him, because he followeth 
not us. 

But Jesus said, Forbid him not: for there is no 
man which shall do a miracle in my name, that can 
lightly speak evil of me. 

For he that is not against us is on our part. 

For whosoever shall give you a cup of 
water to drink in my name, because ye belong 
to Christ, verily I say unto you, he shall 
not lose his reward. Mark ix, 36-42. 



glic jSjermon. 



. 



Text. — He that is not against us is on our part. 

For who soever shall give you a cup of water to drink in my name, 
because ye belong to Christ, verily I say unto you, he shall not 
lose his reward." Mark ix, 40-41. 

These are the words of Jesus. There are no 
words in the whole range of Bible truth more fitting 
for this occasion. For myself, personally, I want 
to say that there is no more helpful sentiment in 
all our Christian faith than this broad, encourag- 
ing word uttered by the Saviour. 

This evening has been set apart for a memorial 
service in honor of Mr. George M. Sweney. The 
occasion is peculiar, and the service somewhat 
unusual, from the fact that Mr. Sweney was not a 
member of this church, and was known to but a 
few of the congregation. He frequently sat here, 
worshiping with us, and in one sense I looked 
on him as a member of our congregation. There 
is, therefore, an eminent propriety in our holding 
this service here to-night in memory of him who 
had this church for an occasional resting-place in 
life's pilgrimage. He had no other church home, 
therefore do we gladly show the grace of Christian 
hospitality by opening our doors in his memory 
this evening. 

For twenty years the pastor of this church knew 



i6 



Mr. Sweney, and he counts it a blessed privilege 
to say some words to-night that will bring back 
for an hour the presence, the genial countenance, 
the hearty hand-grasp and the ringing voice, of as 
true a friend, as brave and loyal a soul, as any one 
of us has ever known. 

Mr. Sweney was born in the town of Milton, Pa. 
Of his boyhood days there is but little known. He 
probably was the typical school-boy, busy with 
books, working out-of-doors, getting the hardening 
for the rugged work of life which fell to him long 
before he became a man. The poet Wordsworth, 
in " Intimations of Immortality from Recollections 
of Early Childhood," writes: 

"Heaven lies about us in our infancy! 
Shades of the prison-house begin to close 
Upon the growing Boy." 

Life is the prison-house. School, work, and 
the serious things of life, come to shut off play, 
and make prisoners of us all. 

While yet but a child Mr. Sweney' s parents re- 
moved to what was then the far West, settling in 
the State of Illinois. Here he passed his early 
years. He was still a boy, only eighteen years 
old, when the civil war broke out. 

The prison-house had not altogether closed him 
in, yet he was man enough to know that serious 



i7 



business was before the country. He enlisted in 
the Eleventh Regiment, Volunteer Infantry, of 
Illinois. He was a Sergeant of his company, under 
Captain Fort, with Colonel Wallace commanding 
the regiment. The date of his enlistment was 
August 20, 1 86 1. At once he met all the duties 
ordinarily laid upon a man. The prison-house 
closed entirely about the boy. With a man's 
duties, a man's responsibilities, a man's dangers, 
he wore his blue uniform, and seemed to the out- 
ward eye but one among the million men who 
went into the field in defense of the flag. 

I wonder if this generation realizes the hazards 
and disabilities incurred by the men of the former 
time who responded to the call to arms when the 
life of the nation was at stake? Young men who 
had just entered on their studies, their trades, or 
professions, dropped everything to march in the 
mud, to famish in real prison-houses, to die unat- 
tended on the battle-field, or to walk halting all 
the rest of their days. Those who survived the 
dangers of field and camp never could regain the 
time lost, the places lost, and must also go halting 
through the remainder of life by reason of the pro- 
longed interruption to their plans through bullets 
and bayonets. 

Our friend Sweney was a man of exceeding 
modesty. Long and intimately as I had known 



i8 



him I never heard him make any boast of his mili- 
tary record, though he had reason to be proud of it. 

I went down to the Pension Office the other day 
to learn what was on record as to the war experi- 
ences of Mr. Sweney, and was much impressed 
by the contrast between a frigid document from 
the War Department, or the Surgeon General's 
Office, and the heroic, thrilling facts as they tran- 
spire on the field. 

The official record simply states: The soldier, 
application number 37,365, enlisted Aug. 20, 1861 ; 
was sergeant of his company; wounded at Fort 
Donelson Feb. 15, 1862; discharged by reason of 
total disability at Chicago, 9th day of August, 1862. 
Gunshot wound between the knee and ankle of 
the left leg, shattering the larger bone of the leg. " 

The examining surgeon, five years after, says: 

"The greater portion of the shaft of the bone 
for three inches is gone, leaving the fibula alone to 
sustain the weight of the body. The leg is greatly 
curved, and shortened from two to three inches. 
Is unable to walk without the support of a crutch 
or cane. The disability is permanent." 

That is the whole record. It is brief and coldly 
exact. 

In less than six months the boy has become a 
man. The boy who used to play with his tin 
soldiers only a little while ago is marching to mar- 



J 9 



tial music, lies down dreaming of his home, and 
rises to face death — for he is in the very thick of the 
fight when General Grant captures Fort Donelson. 

It was at this time that Grant sent the "uncon- 
ditional surrender" despatch to General Buckner, 
in command of the Confederate forces, adding — 
" I propose to move immediately upon your works. " 

Where was this boy when the cheers were going 
up that day over the surrender? 

He had been lying all the night alone in the cold 
of a raw, snowy February. He was almost dead 
from loss of blood ; from pain and cold. The shades 
of the prison-house have gathered thick. 

The Colonel of the Eleventh Illinois, in a report 
of the part which his men took in this battle, says, 
that from the nth to the 15th February the troops 
were almost constantly fighting their way over the 
heavily wooded hills, over ground which had not 
been reconnoitered, covered with a dense growth of 
underbrush, in the face of irregular fire from sharp- 
shooters, varied by occasional discharges of artil- 
lery. 

"The night of the 13th," the Colonel says, "was 
one of great suffering and hardship to the whole 
command. We lay within point-blank musket and 
rifle range of the enemy's breastworks, and at dark 
a storm of rain, soon turning to snow and accom- 
panied by severe blasts, beat upon our unprotected 



20 



ranks. The spirits of the men never flagged, not- 
withstanding they were without tents or fires, ex- 
posed to the fierce storm, and assailed by the enemy's 
shot. The right of my line was more heavily en- 
gaged on the 15th than any other portion. The 
Eleventh Regiment, being posted on the right of my 
line, suffered more than any other regiment, having 
67 killed on the field. " 

Read the history and you will see that Saturday, 
the 15th February, was the bloody day in the in- 
vestment of Fort Donelson — up to that time the 
most deadly battle of the civil war. 

General Grant made special mention of the brav- 
ery of officers and men in that campaign. 

If he had known all the facts in the case I am in- 
clined to think he would have mentioned one of his 
boy sergeants, and how he bore himself on that dark, 
cold night. 

Some of the reports of the surrender had been 
written and sent to the commanding officer before 
that boy had been able to crawl out of the woods in 
search of shelter and a surgeon. 

The wounded suffered intensely, and numbers 
of them froze to death as they lay on the icy ground. 

Three hundred and twenty-nine men of this one 
regiment were killed, wounded, captured or miss- 
ing. Colonel Wallace closes his report: 



21 



"In order to a due appreciation of the courage, endurance, 
and fortitude of the men by whom this victory has been won, 
it must be borne in mind that they marched from Fort Henry 
without transportation or tents or rations except what they 
carried; that they were exposed for three days and nights 
without tents and almost without fires — being so near the 
enemy's lines as to render fires imprudent; that the weather 
was extremely severe; two nights they were thus exposed being 
accompanied with driving snow-storms and severe cold; that 
during the whole three days they were under fire, and were 
compelled to bivouac in line of battle with their arms in their 
hands; added to this, most of them had never seen a battle, 
and but few had ever heard a hostile shot." 

Those were the times that tried men's souls, and 
transformed boys into men. 

The letter from which I have quoted is among 
General Grant's official reports of the capture of 
Fort Donelson, and is dated February 17, 1862. 
Air. Sweney had been lying all the previous night 
in the storm, crawling over the snow, towards 
morning, until in his exhausted condition he must 
have thought he had come to the end, when the 
deeper shadows would close about him. 

While in this helpless condition, suffering from 
pain, exhausted by loss of blood, half dead from 
weakness, some miscreant came up to him and 
pulled off his boots, robbing him as if he were really 
dead, leaving him that much more exposed to the 
cold. He afterwards told of his feelings with respect 
to the indignity of this act, when he was treated as 



22 



a dead man, not to mention the additional wrench 
to his wounded leg. But he proved a very lively 
dead man; with his indomitable will and youthful 
strength, he managed to outlive the night and its bar- 
barities. A little later he was roused by the sound of 
some one walking through the underbrush. He 
ordered the man to halt, insisted on being helped to 
shelter, and was thus rescued the day after he had been 
wounded. The surgeons were for amputation, but 
with his characteristic firmness he insisted that it 
should not be done, and his way prevailed. In the 
course of the following months he recovered suf- 
ficiently to be discharged with a permanent disa- 
bility. Even then he was not willing to become an 
idler, and was put in charge of a vessel that was 
doing transport service on one of the western rivers. 
Mr. Sweney was that type of man who is bound 
to be successful, because he did what his hand 
found to do with all his might. Those about him 
recognized this. When the former captain of his 
company came to Washington as a member of Con- 
gress he secured a position for his former sergeant in 
the Post Office Department. Here he gradually 
rose from one grade to another. When I first be- 
came acquainted with him several years later, he 
was Chief Clerk in the office of the Second Assistant 
Postmaster General, where he was a most careful 
and competent servant of the Government. 



23 



The great railway and star-route lines, with 
thousands of miles of mail service, involving the 
expenditure of millions of dollars annually, are all 
handled in this office. The ability and conscientious 
work of Mr. Sweney were recognized by all his as- 
sociates, some of whom are here with us to night to 
bear witness to the fact. 

In later years he gave the same devotion and 
industry to the Secretaryship of the American 
Surety Company of New York, in whose service he 
continued until his death. 

Standing by his desk, one day last week, I was 
told by his successor: "The more I see of the work 
which Mr. Sweney did the more I wonder at the 
amount and manner of it. " He was an all-around 
man ; strong in his attachments ; devoted as a friend ; 
faithful in his business; loyal to every interest he 
espoused ; tireless in application ; gentle as a woman 
in his disposition, yet strong as a lion in his detesta- 
tion of any wrong or meanness. He was truly a 
rare spirit, whose going away has made a large gap 
in every circle in which he moved. The President 
of the United States has recently said that in this 
world the one thing supremely worth having is the 
opportunity, coupled with the capacity, to do well 
and worthily a piece of work the doing of which 
is of vital consequence to the welfare of mankind. 

That principle holds true in every sphere of life, 



24 



and in every grade of work. No one could better 
have illustrated that principle in private life than 
Mr. Sweney. He put himself into what he did, 
with a combination of capacity and conscience more 
than ordinary. 

There is one beautiful incident in the life of our 
friend whom we honor to-night to which I feel like 
referring, since it furnishes one clue to the gentle- 
ness and faithfulness of the man. 

When he was yet a lad his mother gave him a 
Bible, with her prayer that he would keep it and 
read it. That Bible never was out of his keeping. 
Each day he read it, and somewhere, once in the 
twenty-four hours, he remembered his mother and 
her God. Can we doubt that the same faith was 
deep down in his heart, uttered or unexpressed? 

There is many a mother who has done the same 
for her boy, but unfortunately not every boy has 
done the same for his mother. What a power there 
is in a religious sentiment to influence life, and 
mould the conduct! A Bible which has come from 
a mother's hand is a daily sermon, and in this one 
case we know the mother's hand was on her boy to 
the last day of his life. His heart was made sympa- 
thetic, and his life gentle. 

How his soul burned at the sight of any wrong ! 

Once on the streets of our city he came across 
an old colored woman who was being tormented 



25 



by a crowd of ruffians. Instantly he charged the 
group with his heavy cane and put them to flight . 
He would not have hesitated to attack an army 
alone, if he knew he was in the right. 

He was tender with suffering, and fond of the 
children, who were drawn to him as if instinctively 
recognizing the childlike in him. I remember one 
summer on the coast of Maine, where we had spent 
our vacation together, the children grew so fond of 
him that when the time came for him to go they 
clung to him on the wharf, and cried as the steamer 
sailed away. There were great tears, also, in the 
eyes of their friend, who was as transparent as a 
child in all his ways. 

Suddenly, in the extreme heat of the past summer, 
the deeper shadows fell, the last battle was soon 
fought, and he was alone again, in the night, as on 
the field at Fort Donelson. Before his three-score 
years had been filled up, while still in the midst of 
usefulness, life's fitful fever ended, and he fell 
asleep, on the 6th July, 1901. 

Yesterday we laid in the ground all that was 
mortal of our friend. 

We sounded the "taps, " for the lights were out. 

The shadows of the prison-house closed entirely 
around him so far as earth is concerned. 

Now let me apply these words of the Saviour. 
Is it not plain how they fit? They fit our friend. 



26 



A cup of cold water to a thirsty disciple — why, 
yes, he was always waiting to do just that. He 
was not against us, then by Christ's own line of argu- 
ment he must be on our part. Once, as we walked 
away from this house, after a sermon on the Christian 
doctrine of immortality, he set out with much force 
his own ideas on the subject. 

In his heart he was a believer. We have so much 
of the harsher side of Bible teaching on which we lay 
emphasis, often to the discouragement of those 
who want to believe. Let us lay the emphasis to- 
night on these gentler words of the Master. 

He speaks as if he wanted to include every man, 
unless that were made impossible by perverse oppo- 
sition. If he is not against us, the Saviour said, 
he must be on our side. Let us claim him. If he 
will not do more than give one of you a cup of cold 
water, you may judge from that act where his heart 
is. I assure you he shall not lose his reward. 

Does it not bring some light to us in respect to 
many a life that might be unable to measure up to 
any other standard ? We are liable to make other 
arbitrary tests. We set up a doctrinal test; a 
money test; a church membership test; and create 
the impression that we can thus decide between the 
lost and the saved — between Christ's disciple and 
the enemy of Christ. We do well to remember 
that the Saviour has his own tests. 



27 



Here are two of them set down so plainly that 
we cannot misread them. If you are not against 
Him you must be on the other side. If you have 
ever done any service, even the smallest, done in 
the right spirit, done in the name of Christ, it shall 
not go unrewarded. There is nothing harsh or 
narrow about that. Yet it is the very word of Jesus 
Christ, enforced by His own illustration. 

And we cannot help believing that He selected 
the simplest, most common act of every-day life in 
that illustration, so that it might not escape any 
living soul in its application save only the wilfully 
perverse, the persistently hostile, who were at heart 
against Christ. 

Comrades of the Grand Army, you are here this 
evening to do honor to as noble and brave a com- 
rade as ever wore the blue. 

The men of the mould of George Sweney are all 
too rare in this world. When they go away life is 
not the same afterwards to their companions. The 
earth is richer for their having been on it, but now 
the poorer that their places are vacant. 

We must all march to the same music, fight the 
same battle, and answer to the same final roll- 
call. 

It is a great thing to do one's duty in any place; 
and the greatest thing of all is to do one's duty to 
God and one's fellowmen. "That shall give a man 



28 



peace at the last." We are all looking in that 
direction. 

Somehow we are all wanting to bring up at the 
gate of our Father's house in the end. 

Our friend did, I know, for he often talked of 
these matters in his serious hours, and thought of 
them often when he did not talk of them. He 
never wanted to get far away from the influence 
of that mother's Bible. 

What a great thing we hold out for the hope of 
men in our Christian faith! It is the immortal 
life ; the expectation of coming together as children 
are expecting to meet in the coming Thanksgiving 
time at the old home. 

So Christ said: " In my Father's house are many 



"There what one thinks is his to grasp; 

There are no dreams, but very joys to reap; 
No foiled desires that die before delight, 
No fears to see across our joys and weep." 

— Swinburne. 

Here now we must take leave of our friend, our 
comrade, and brother. 

There is a great wrench when a life so loyal and 
true is ended. 

Neither his devoted wife nor any of his own 
family could be present at this service to-night, but 



2 9 



their hearts are with us, and we can feel what the 
bitterness of the loss of such a brother, husband 
and friend must be. 

Yet there stands before us our Father's house, 
at the bound of life where we lay our burdens 
down. 

Dr. Babcock, whose life closed so tragically last 
summer, wrote a few lines not long before, which 
seemed prophetic for himself, and might apply al- 
ways as we stand in the presence of death. 

Why be afraid of death as though your life were breath ? 
Death but anoints your eyes with clay. O glad surprise! 

Why should you be forlorn? Death only husks the corn. 
Why should you fear to meet the thrasher of the wheat ? 

Is sleep a thing to dread? Yet sleeping you are dead 
Till you awake and rise, here or beyond the skies. 

Why should it be a wrench to leave your wooden bench ? 
Why not with happy shout run home when school is out ? 

The dear ones left behind! O foolish one and blind, 
A day and you will meet — a night and you will greet! 

This is the death of death, to breathe away a breath 
And know the end of strife and taste the deathless life, 

And joy without a fear and smile without a tear. 
And work, nor care to rest, and rind the last the best. 



3o 



So our friend came to his emancipation. 

He passed from the " shades of the prison house" 
of earth to the sunlight of our Father's house 
above. 

Washington, D. C. 
Church of the Reformation. 
November 24, 1901. 



